When Worlds Collide
A/N: Revision uploaded 6-8-15
Beta'd Emmagem803
Chapter Four
Complications in Fate
Ichigo sat in the comfortable chair at the side of the room and watched as Tony slept. He didn't have anything else to do at this time of night, after all. After the incident in the shower, Ichigo had stepped out and let Tony finish his shower and get himself dressed. He didn't know what to make of the whole thing and he knew that Tony didn't either. They were drawn to each other and neither one knew why. No matter how hard either of them tried, they couldn't break the tie that had drawn them together. Ichigo wanted to help Tony stay safe from this Tiberius. And Tony was letting down his guard around Ichigo, something he rarely did.
Ichigo sighed and realized something with sudden clarity.
He didn't really care as much as he thought he should if he never went home. Sure, he missed Karin and Yuzu and his father, but he knew they'd be fine without him. The truth was he didn't fit there and never really had. He smiled to himself. He supposed that was okay. He had thought that becoming a Shinigami would fix that. It didn't, it made things even worse because he was a "substitute" Shinigami and not a real one. They'd mistrusted him and spied on him and feared him, and all he ever wanted to do was help others and protect the ones he loved. But the ones he loved, they didn't need his protection anymore, now did they? Karin had learned under Urahara, his father was shinigami, and Yuzu had them both to protect her if she needed it. No, they didn't need him like they used to anymore.
As for Soul Society, how could he honestly feel that beholden to them? They'd abandoned Orihime, and they had let him run off into Hueco Mundo with no help. In fact he had been told not to go after her. Rukia and Renji had come, but even then, he wondered if they had alternative agendas. After all, Rukia had hidden so much from him. And even Urahara had his own plans and not knowing the truth had affected them all. Just the knowledge of the hogyuku could have saved so much pain and strife. Knowing that he wasn't the reason for his mother's death would have changed a lot of things. Even his father had lied and kept so much from him.
Was it any wonder he was in the middle of a strange world with strange variations on his powers he was okay? He'd figured out that he had similar powers, but he had no idea the extent to which he could use them. Would he be exhausted by using getsuga too many times? Would he be able to have unlimited energy like he was used to having? He smiled to himself and decided to see what his other bodily residents thought of everything.
The place was surprisingly without rain or water. Ichigo paused and tilted his head, putting the world right side up and realized something strange. His inner world, this supposed reflection of his soul and everything he was, looked curiously like New York from above. He'd never thought about why his inner world had skyscrapers in it, granted that had changed a time or two, but this was the way it had come to him the first time, and the way it remained when he was at his peak powers. It didn't really look like Tokyo or any other big city he'd encountered. So…if his inner world, where his souls could commune, why did it look like New York of this world? Was this soul mate thing really true? He couldn't imagine…he was skeptical, but now, looking at it…how could he deny that it just might be true after all?
Shiro appeared in front of him. "Hey king," he said, smirking. "What's up?"
"I just wanted to know what you thought if I never was able to go back," he said, looking at him seriously. "It isn't looking good. I know it's been three days, but I am really starting to wonder. I just have a feeling, you know."
Shiro shrugged at him. "I don't give two shits one way or the other, you know that King."
Zangetsu stood on the flagpole and looked down on the pair of them. "What is there to return to the old world for, Ichigo?"
Ichigo stared at him for a long time. "I'm surprised you'd agree with not finding a way home."
"Maybe we are home, Ichigo," he said and disappeared. "It certainly looks more like home," Ichigo heard faintly from the distance.
Ichigo crossed his arms over his chest and then looked at Shiro. Shiro was smirking at him. He knew something. "What do you know?" he asked, eyes narrowing and brow furrowing at his white twin.
"See, King, here's the thing," Shiro said. "Some of this is my fault," he said grinning widely at him.
Ichigo shook his head. "The hell do you mean?"
Shiro started to giggle. "Well, hate to tell you this King, but I guess all of this is my fault…your fault, our fault, really. I mean, I'm you and you're me after all."
Ichigo shook his head. "I don't understand."
Shiro arched a brow. "Well, you know, I guess I got tired of the world you were living in, King. And I finally had enough. See, what you don't know is that I'm Zangetsu, not the old man. The old man? He's your power too, but he's not your zanpakutou, that's me. He's the Quincy power you got from your momma."
Ichigo frowned deeply at him. "What are you talking about?"
"The reason I have no name is because you gave my name to someone else, King. And more than anything, I want to protect you. I told you this, when you accepted and gave up all your powers. You want to protect others, I want to protect you. So this time, I did what I had to do to protect you from them, before they separate us again," Shiro said, his smile fading and looking very serious for the first time that Ichigo had ever seen him. "I, or we, decided that we had to act, and there was only one thing to do. Chase the red string of fate and see where it led us."
"You chased the red string of fate? What do you mean by that? It was an arrancar that opened that portal to this world…not…you did it…" Ichigo said blinking at him. "You opened the portal; somehow, you managed to do it."
Shiro grinned at him. "You're smart for someone so dumb sometimes, King. I did, we did, or really, you did."
"I did?" Ichigo said, frowning.
"Think about, King," Shiro said, stepping forward and poking Ichigo's forehead. "How the hell are a zanpakutou spirit and a collection of Quincy powers going to do anything you don't want them to do? I can't leave your body, Ichigo. Neither can the old man. He's a physical representation of your power. Just like me. We're two parts of your soul."
Ichigo blinked. "I did this."
"You did this." Shiro leaned back and grinned.
"Wh-what the hell did I do?" he asked, looking at him wide eyed.
Shiro grinned. "What did you do, Ichigo, what did you do?"
Ichigo gasped and sat up with a start in the darkness of the bedroom.
"Are you well, Mr. Kurosaki?" JARVIS said in the darkness.
Ichigo swallowed thickly. "Fine, JARVIS, fine."
"Your heart rate is triple that of your normal rate, sir, and that is already twice that of human resting normal," the AI said, almost sounding concerned.
"Just…just something personal," Ichigo said, sighing.
"Very well, sir, please tell me if you need assistance," the AI said without a break.
Ichigo sighed and stood up. What did Shiro mean? What the hell could that…could it be that he had done this? How could he possibly have opened a garganta or portal between what was obviously parallel universes or something? He didn't have that kind of power. At least…he didn't think he did. And what was about that that Shiro was his Zanpakutou? He was a hollow, so what did that do for his powers?
He sighed and found his way to the elevator. He headed up to the top level where he took off into the night. He had to clear his head. Something about Shiro's words unsettled him more than he wanted to believe they did. He stopped on the top of the Statue of Liberty, and stared out across the ocean. Far around the world, there was a country like the one he'd come from. It wasn't exactly the same, but it was closer to what he had come from than this. For a moment, he contemplated going there. Would it be better? He'd shown his hand. For some insane reason, he'd shown his powers.
But had he?
They haven't seen half of what you can do yet, King. We gave them enough to scare them. That's all.
Ichigo grinned broadly. Somehow, he felt it. No, he hadn't revealed his hand at all. He'd given them enough to scare them and to make them realize that he was not to be trifled with. He'd let them know that despite the power he had he wouldn't use it to hurt them, even though he could very well do just that if he wanted. He knew that it would be one result or another. They'd leave him alone, or they would try and take him out. Either way, he was, at the heart of it, trying to make them show their hand, he realized. Without knowing it entirely, most likely under the influence of his inner hollow, he'd been able to cover his true powers. He heard a giggling in the back of his mind.
Remember what we did to bat boy, King? Remember that power. Your mask has nothing on what we become when we fully merge, King. This world, it changed our power, and now, it is fully controlled, as long as you don't die. We haven't finished changing yet, King. Just wait. I don't think they even have a clue. Your power is great, King.
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Tony woke up with a start just before dawn. He blinked and sat up, looking around in the darkness lit only by his reactor. He thought that Ichigo had been in here when he'd gone to sleep the night before. He rubbed his eyes and sat up.
"JARVIS, where did Ichigo go off to?" he asked as he slid out of bed.
"Mr. Kurosaki left the building around three am and has not returned yet, though sensors have been calibrated as you requested, and I have been able to track him successfully as he is the only object that is able to move with such speed at that size. He has remained in New York," JARVIS intoned quietly. "He had a highly accelerated heart rate before he left. I am unsure as to the cause."
Tony frowned and got up to go to the console and pull up the readings. He'd been cautious, of course. Steve and Bruce had no idea, they believed him to be flippantly letting this new kid do whatever he wanted, but he wasn't. He was far from stupid, and he knew that he posed a great danger. He was pretty sure that he was something far beyond what existed here. He'd even managed to hack into SHIELD's super-secret gifted archive to see who was out there with powers. Not many came close to the power that Tony and the official Avengers had, but Ichigo was another story.
"JARVIS, is his heart rate normally over 100 bpm?" he asked, looking at the scans.
"Affirmative, Sir. Since I've been monitoring him his heartrate has remained steadily between 130 and 170. When he left the tower it had spiked to over 350."
"That's impossible. How is his heart not exploding?" he asked, frowning. "His initial heart rate when he was discovered was low, 45, then the next day here at the tower it was high but not that high at 70, and now his heart rate is steady at almost 130?" Tony said, glaring at the screen showing the variation. "Show me the compiled theories?"
A second passed. "Mr. Kurosaki is still in the process of adjusting to this world."
"So he could be more powerful than we realize," Tony said, frowning. "Have we determined what speed he moved with?" he asked, punching up the statistics and reading them as JARVIS spoke out loud. Tony found it much easier to think when using JARVIS as a sounding board.
"The ability to project multiple images of himself is not unique, simply a byproduct of his incredible speed. We tracked his speed around two hundred to three hundred miles per hour," JARVIS said.
"Do we think he can go faster than that?" Tony asked, frowning at the data. Of course, since Tony didn't know, neither would JARVIS, but then Tony never really saw JARVIS as just a machine.
"Unsure, Sir. They are your calculations. However, I must inform you that his cells are still in a state of flux. It is barely discernable, however, the sensors you installed in here allowed me to detect the cellular flux," JARVIS said almost as an afterthought.
"You mean he's still changing…" Tony said, dawning on him how true that was as he brought up the reports. He was glad to have JARVIS even if he was just repeating the information that Tony had already discovered.
"It must be assumed, Sir," JARVIS intoned.
"We have never experienced this sort of thing before. Ichigo's body, if we go with his tale and the evidence, was newly created a few days ago, now four days. We have no idea how long it took to form a physical body from an existence that was purely spiritual in nature. We have no comparisons to make about this situation," Tony muttered as JARVIS pulled up a timeline of events.
"Trying to figure me out?" came Ichigo's voice from the window.
Tony spun around to see Ichigo standing casually against the frame, balancing perfectly on the ledge that could have been no more than an inch wide. Tony swallowed hard and wasn't sure what to tell him. He felt strangely bad for doing this investigation when he wasn't here. It wasn't like he couldn't, but there was this thing in his head that didn't want him to betray Ichigo's trust.
"Tony, don't act like I caught you in the act of something," Ichigo said, dropping down to the floor easily. "I'm completely unusual and you are worried for the safety of this world. You should be, because to be honest, I don't know what exactly I'm capable of," he said, coming over and sitting on the bed and rubbing his head. "A few days ago I was sitting on my bed, staring into space and wondering where my life was going. Then I show up here. I guess I got where I was going."
Tony frowned. "You talk like there's no way back."
Ichigo arched a brow at Tony and smiled. "Be honest with yourself, and me, Tony. Do you think there's a chance I can get home?"
Tony opened his mouth to tell him of course there was, that there was something they could do. "I don't think so. But we don't have to give up yet."
Ichigo smiled. "I don't either. Just the fact that my spiritual form became a corporeal form tells me that. If I got back to my world, would I take this body? I doubt it. Something tells me that this was a one way trip. We can keep trying, I mean, if there is a way, that would be great, but I just want to be prepared for the possibility there isn't one."
Tony shook his head. "Even so, we might be able to communicate…"
"I think if I could at least talk to my family it would be nice, Tony. They'll be alright without me," Ichigo said, smiling sadly at him. "I just need to suck it up and adjust to this world for the time being. If a way to get back can be found, we'll deal, if not, I'm stuck here. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst."
They were quiet for a long time and then he turned back to Tony. "I thought about going to Japan."
Tony blinked, surprised. Of course he'd go to Japan. That's where he was from. Why would he stay in New York? Why stay in a country where he had never lived. "Oh? Why didn't you?"
"It isn't my home, so why bother. That's not the Japan I come from. There isn't even a place named Karakura Town. No, I'll stay where I landed. Makes sense, you know. Fate brought me here, might as well embrace it," Ichigo said, glancing down at his hands.
"I don't believe in fate," Tony said, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at Ichigo hard.
Ichigo paused, then looked at him and smiled. "That's okay, because fate doesn't require you to believe in it for it to affect you."
"You haven't been truthful, have you?" Tony said, staring at him.
Ichigo tilted his head to the side and smiled. "Would you, in my position, tell everything?"
Tony shook his head. "No."
"Then there's the answer, Tony," Ichigo said with a subtle glance to Tony from where he sat.
Tony nodded and headed to his bathroom to shower and change, leaving Ichigo to sit on the bed and think over what was going on around him. He'd seriously thought of flash stepping all the way to Japan. But what would it do for him? He'd be a foreigner in his own country. No, he didn't want to do that. Tony brought him here, and here he would stay.
King…are we ever getting any action?
Ichigo snorted and rolled his eyes at the echo in his head. Just because they were connected with the red string of fate didn't mean that Tony was going to just fall into his arms, even though he did, technically. That didn't count though. No, he had to sort out a whole lot of things. Tony was in a delicate position emotionally, and to be honest, Ichigo didn't know the first thing about this romance and love thing. He'd just assumed he'd never have a relationship and moved on. He wanted nothing to do with it, and honestly had thought he was asexual or something. He really didn't find anyone interesting or arousing very often. Sure Yoruichi running around naked embarrassed him, but he wasn't used to seeing naked women. He knew that Orihime had been pursuing him, but he just didn't feel it.
This was different. Tony made him very confused about what he was supposed to do. His heart seemed to flutter and all he wanted to do when he was sad was make it go away. Was that affection? Was that connection? It was all so confusing. When he'd held him in the shower, even though Tony was completely naked, it didn't bother him. The closeness was actually nice, though, where before being that close to someone in that situation would be uncomfortable for Ichigo. He just felt like he wanted him to be happy. He looked up as Tony came in, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and still barefoot. He was still drying his hair with a towel.
"Do you need the shower?" he asked Ichigo.
Ichigo smiled, "I suppose, I did flash around the city most the night," he said and stood up, pulling off the t-shirt he was wearing as he went. He paused and looked in the full length mirror. "Damn, talk about a bit of a change, my abs weren't this good even in spirt form," he muttered staring at the incredibly defined eight squares of muscle on his abdomen. He shook his head and went into the bathroom, leaving Tony alone for a bit.
Tony cleared his throat. He had to admit, he was certainly blessed by whatever gave him that body. It was perfect, and according to JARVIS, with less than two percent body fat on it. Tony rarely saw that sort of sculpting on a body, except Steve, of course. Steve was more muscular, though, where Ichigo's body was built for speed. He glanced over and saw Ichigo had left the sword on his bed. Tony chewed his lip for a minute and glanced at the bathroom. He could hear the shower running. He said not to touch the blade at all if possible, and not to touch it for long if he had to touch it at all. So what would happen in he put his hands on the blade, he wondered. All the scans had come back with there being no danger. To his computers, the sword was made of some sort of metal, but it couldn't yet be identified. That wasn't unusual; when vibranium was found, it was a mystery as well. There were no strange readings, no anomalies that he could find about the thing. So, why was Ichigo so worried about someone touching it?
Tony reached out tentatively, traced his fingers down the hilt. There was a bang from the bathroom, Ichigo dropping something in the shower no doubt, and Tony started. He blinked, realizing his hand had shifted from the hilt onto the bare, black blade. A few seconds passed and nothing happened. He let out a long breath he didn't realize he'd been holding and smiled. Nothing. So it wasn't as dangerous as Ichigo thought. Then the world began to spin and tilt crazily and he felt like he was falling. He had no voice as he slammed against something hard. He blinked, groaning and looked up. He blinked rapidly and yelped as a face hovered over his own. He scrambled backward, and then freaked out because he was sitting on the side of a skyscraper.
"Calm, Tony-san," came a voice from a nearby flagpole. Tony looked up to see a dark robed man standing on the tip of it easily and staring at him.
"Yeah, Tony-san, calm yer tits, man," said another voice.
Tony turned around and stared openly at something he couldn't believe. It was Ichigo. But it wasn't Ichigo. He was exactly like Ichigo, right down to the hair and the sword, but he was white, and when he grinned, his tongue was blue…
"What…where am I?" he said, glancing around, and back at them.
"Dumb ass humans," the white figure said, rolling his eyes and coming closer to Tony where he sat on the glass. "King told you not to touch the blade. Then what do you do? Go and touch the blade."
"Humans are curious creatures, Shiro. It is not necessarily his fault. Ichigo left us in easy reach," the man on the pole said. "Perhaps without realizing it, this was something he wished Tony to understand."
The white version was suddenly over Tony, pinning his shoulders to the building and straddling his hips. "Well, if you really want to come into our realm uninvited, can I come into you uninvited?" he said, grinning at him. Tony's eyes went wide again.
"Shiro for fuck's sake!" came Ichigo's voice and the white version of Ichigo went flying backward and he was staring at the real Ichigo, dressed as they'd first seen him, in the black outfit. He turned back to the white version. "Dammit, you're freaking him the fuck out, stop this shit. We talked about you not interfering, but you insist!"
"Ah, King, I wasn't gonna hurt him, I was just messin' with him," Shiro said, crossing his arms over his chest as he sat up on the building where he'd landed. "He's the one that came into our world!"
Ichigo sighed, rubbing his nose. "Okay, yes, but I didn't even know that was possible, my inner world has never been accessible to others."
"Well, he's special, you know that. He's connected to us. Of course he can get in here, but he can't get out without help. If he touches the blade, he gets pulled in, same as when you commune, but he can't control shit like you can, not yet anyway," Shiro said, looking chastised and grumpy now. "Besides, this is a new world, new fuckin' rules, King. Get used to it."
Ichigo shook his head and reached down for Tony's hand. "Come on, Tony, I'll take you back," he said, sighing.
Tony took his hand and stood up slowly, staring at the white version of him and the man on the pole. "Who…who are they?"
"Me, and not me, Zangetsu and Shiro are what I call them, though Shiro's really the sword and Zangetsu is my other powers, but it doesn't matter, hold on," Ichigo said, pulling them both out of his inner world.
It was a really odd feeling to hold someone coming up from his inner world. He felt the same sensations, but he also felt Tony's perceptions of those sensations. It was perhaps one of the strangest things he'd had happen in a while…and that was saying something.
Tony gasped as he felt himself return to his body. He blinked and realized he was sitting on the floor in Ichigo's lap and Ichigo was sopping wet and naked underneath him. The sword was on the floor beside them. He glanced at it and Ichigo let go and blinked a couple times. Ichigo sighed.
"So, I didn't know that would happen," he said, then a rush of blood headed to his cheeks, and unfortunately elsewhere, as he realized that he had not stopped for a towel when JARVIS had said Tony had fallen unconscious. "Um, I should…uh, dry off."
Tony nodded, pulling himself up on the bed as Ichigo got up and went to the bathroom once again. Tony blinked. Wow, so he might have had a more perfect body than Steve did… His back had the defined v shape like Steve's did, except it was narrower at the shoulder and less bulky. In a way, there was almost a feminine curving to his back and the way he walked. Tony shook his head. Out of the gutter, Tony, out of the gutter.
Ichigo emerged a few minutes later in a pair of jeans and a sleeveless t-shirt. "Well, so, apparently you can go into my inner world. As you can see, I'm somewhat split between three personalities of a sort," he said, smiling.
Tony nodded. "Inner world? So the whole idea that there is really a soul and you can go inside it?" he asked, completely amazed that this would really be true.
"Yeah, well, Soul Reaper, remember? Souls are kind of my business, I mean, the sword, this," he said, picking up Zangetsu again. "This is a physical manifestation of my soul as well. That's why you don't recognize the metals or anything."
"Sir, sorry for the interruption," JARVIS said quietly. "Miss Potts has arrived with Mr. Stone and requested you come to the conference room to sign the rest of the papers."
Ichigo saw Tony's shoulders tighten. "I'll go with you," he said, smiling at him.
Tony started to argue but realized he wanted Ichigo to go with him. "Okay, sounds good."
Tony quickly changed into a suit and Ichigo went through the closet until he found a reasonably business casual outfit. It was a pants suit that seemed to have heavy Asian influences with a kusodo style jacket, and tailored pants. He slipped on the pair of geta that JARVIS had added for the order. Interesting that the AI seemed to know him almost as well as he knew himself. He came out of the changing room just as Tony came out of the bathroom again.
"Wow, I've never seen someone wear those things," he said, pointing at Ichigo's feet.
"Geta?" he said, looking down at his feet. "I've worn them a couple times, my mentor, Urahara, I used to call him Getabishi, Hat and Clogs, because he wore geta and a bucket hat all the time."
Tony nodded. "Do they mean something specific?" he asked.
"Depends on who you ask," Ichigo said, smirking and heading toward the door. "Shall we get your visit with this gentleman over with?"
"Let's do that," Tony said, smiling at him and walking in front of him.
As they came out to the elevator he saw the others lounging around the living area. "Going to a business meeting, Tony?" Natasha asked, glancing up.
"Yeah, figured that Ichigo could come with me," he said, gesturing to him. "Less boring that way."
Tony could see that Steve wanted to say something, but didn't. It wasn't up to him who he took to business meetings anyway. He got into the elevator with the now quite a bit taller young man. For some reason, that irritated Tony more than he thought it would. They got down to the floor and headed to the conference room where Stone was sitting with Pepper and a couple of his attachés. He saw everyone stare as he came in with Ichigo following him.
"Okay, I'm here, got other things to do," he said, sitting down at the head of the table between Pepper and Stone. Ichigo stood behind him, crossing his arms and resting his hands inside his jacket sleeves.
Stone looked up at Ichigo. "This is a private meeting, Stark," he said, his voice dripping with annoyance.
Tony looked at him. "Tiberius, Mr. Kurosaki is my business intern. I invited him to come watch the meeting. Do you have a problem with that?"
Stone glanced at Ichigo who looked back with a calm, neutral face. Stone smiled. "Of course not, this is a business meeting, after all."
Tony smiled and they negotiated a few things and signatures were done quickly. After about half an hour, they were done. Stone shook hands with Pepper and Tony, but Ichigo caught the way he squeezed Tony's hand harder than necessary. Tony hid the look of discomfort well, Ichigo saw. He then watched as Stone left with his two men. Tony sighed and flopped into his seat.
"Okay, I'm done for the day," he said.
Pepper looked at him. "Tony, what's going on between you and Stone?" she asked. She glanced at Ichigo, knowing that he knew something about it. Ichigo sighed and she was sure there was much more to this than there seemed.
"Just leave it, Pepper," Tony said, sighing and standing up. "Please, just leave it. I'm done with all the paperwork and I don't have to deal with him again, that's all that matters. Ready, Ichigo? Why don't we go somewhere nice for lunch, why waste getting dressed for Stone's behalf?" he said, grabbing Ichigo by the elbow and yanking him after him.
Ichigo frowned, letting himself be pulled and saw Pepper's glare as they exited. He guessed he deserved to be manhandled a bit. Finally, they were in the garage and Tony picked out one of his cars and they headed out to a nice place. It turned out "nice place" was a high dollar Japanese place in the penthouse of a sky rise building. Ichigo stared at the menu as he sat down in the way fancier than necessary place and boggled at the prices. He wasn't great at conversions on the fly, but he was sure that over a hundred American dollars for a plate of food was on the very high priced end…
"Tony, you know, we could go to a ramen joint," he said, looking over the menu to see Tony gulping down the goblet of water.
Tony nodded. "I like this place," he said, flagging the waitress over and ordering for himself. "Order what you like, Ichigo," he said, smiling.
Ichigo nodded, scanning the menu. Everything was listed in Japanese and English, which made it easier for him to order. He ordered in Japanese and the waitress blinked, and stared at him.
"Are you from Japan? You have no American accent when you speak Japanese," she asked in Ichigo's native tongue.
"Hai," he answered, smiling. "Do you also come from there?"
The waitress smiled shyly. "My parents do, but I was born here. Um, I'll get your order," she said, blushing as she walked away.
"Wow, already snagging the ladies, huh?" Tony said, smirking at him.
Ichigo sipped at his water. "Nah, not my area," he said. "Though I seem to have the annoying habit of attracting them."
Tony glanced up as the waitress brought a bottle of sake and cups to them. Ichigo thanked her in Japanese and she fluttered her eyes at him and grinned as she walked away. He shook his head and poured the sake into the cups. "At least they serve this correctly," he said, smiling at Tony.
Tony clinked cups with him and sipped it. "So, um, you said that girls weren't your area."
Ichigo nodded. "Actually the whole romance thing isn't my area," he said smiling thoughtfully. "Though Shiro seems to think we should fix that. Fiendish thing, he is. He's not worried about love and romance, though. Just the physical aspect."
"What's it like living with…them?" Tony said, not wanting to say living with them in your head because that just sounded crazy.
"Challenging," he said, smiling across the table. "But they're part of me so I have to accept them. I had trouble with Shiro at first, I had to best him in a fight in the inner world, a fight for dominance. That's why he'll call me king. He says as long as I'm strong, he'll be the horse and I'll be king, but if I ever weaken, he'll become the king."
Tony frowned. "That sounds…interesting. Can he do that?"
Ichigo nodded, sipping the sake lightly, realizing that the waitress hadn't bothered to card him. He must have aged. "He can take over my body, has on occasion, usually when I'm about to die, or in one case when I did die," he said, sighing. He didn't want to talk about that, though. He cleared his throat and smiled again. "So, that Stone guy's a real bruiser, no wonder he intimidates people."
Tony nodded, allowing the change in topic. He could sense that Ichigo wasn't quite comfortable revealing just everything yet. "Yeah, that hasn't changed much."
"He's nothing, you know, compared to you. Your suit would crush him like a cicada," Ichigo said, smiling.
The waitress brought their plates and after she left Ichigo realized she'd slipped a piece of paper under his plate when she sat it down. He pulled it out and sighed, stuffing it into his jacket pocket. Tony glanced up and frowned at him.
"She left her number," he said, and they proceeded to eat in silence for a little while. After they were done with their food Tony looked over at him.
"Well, does it pass for authentic Japanese food?" Tony said, smiling at him.
"Pretty well, but I'll find us a real place that you'll love even more, just give me time, still learning about New York," Ichigo said as waitress came and picked up the dishes. Again, she gave him the smile and blushing cheeks. Ichigo, already tired of it, was growing annoyed with her hovering every chance she got.
"Miss," he said in Japanese. "I appreciate your interest, I do, but I'm really not looking for someone right now."
She blinked, her hands shaking a bit as she held the dishes. "Oh, I am sorry, I didn't see a ring, and you are here with Mr. Stark. I assumed you were business associates."
Ichigo nodded. "I'm afraid I'm not a business associate of Mr. Stark's, quite the opposite," he said.
She blinked, eyes going wide and then nodded quickly and left as fast as she could.
"I didn't catch all that; you were talking too fast for me to get it all. What did you tell her?" Tony said as he got up and slipped his jacket back on. "Whatever it was sent her running."
"Just told her I wasn't interested. No reason to get her hopes up that I'd call her when I won't," he said, standing and slipping into his own jacket. They headed back to the tower and thought no more of their lunch outing.
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Unfortunately, people talk, and before long, the waitress had told her friends, who told their friends, and word spread that Tony Stark was on the prowl again, only this time, he had been seen out with an unnamed male escort. Before long, there was a tabloid splash article about Tony and Ichigo with several pictures that had been snapped of them together. There were a couple from the park, a photo of them at the Japanese place, another when they'd been driving around together. The title read "Playboy Changes Teams?" and sensationalized the whole thing. Most annoying to those writing the article was that no one could figure out who Ichigo was.
When that paper landed on Stone's desk almost two weeks later, he exploded. There was no other way to put it. There was no elegance or grace to what happened. He ripped the paper to shreds and then proceeded to destroy his office. After an hour, one of his men came in to see if he was in need of anything.
"I want to know if that is true. I want to know if Stark is dating that Japanese boy, that shitty orange haired freak of an intern. I want to know everything. I want the best detectives following their every move," Stone practically snarled at him.
The man nodded, and headed out to do just that. Stone picked up a piece of the ripped paper that caught his eye. It was the boy, this boy with strange orange hair, and Tony sitting across from each other at a small ramen joint. The look was all he needed to see, but he had to confirm it. He had to know for sure. Tony was his; this other interloper had no claim to him. He would destroy him for thinking that he had a chance.
